William Mawson 1540 Leeds

[JAC100]

I am researching my mother's family tree and have found ancestors living near Leeds, in Barwick in Elmet. My great (x12) grandfather was a William MAWSON born in 1540. All the family tree information appears to have his father (another William) being born in 1510 in Lincolnshire circa 45 miles east around Kettleby. There appears no good reason for this change in location, and worryingly the William born in 1510 has a wife, Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, who was born and died in Lincolnshire, making the birth of her offspring near Leeds most unlikely.
Baptisms start being recorded in Barwick in Elmet after 1600, with the Church register starting in 1653, so there appears no way of corroborating other's family trees.

Can anyone please help?  Thanks, John

[Maiden Stone]

I am researching my mother's family tree and have found ancestors living near Leeds, in Barwick in Elmet. My great (x12) grandfather was a William MAWSON born in 1540. All the family tree information appears to have his father (another William) being born in 1510 in Lincolnshire circa 45 miles east around Kettleby.

Where did you find the family tree information with father William born 1510?

[JAC100]

I have used two electronic files offering the same information:

Mawson FT (Ancestry)
Pedigree Resource File - Steven James Temple (Family Search)

John

[Maiden Stone]

Have you tried contacting the owners of the trees?
Given the general scarcity of records anywhere pre 1600 it's difficult to be sure of anything except about well-known people or those who had wealth or property.

…  There appears no good reason for this change in location, and worryingly the William born in 1510 has a wife, Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, who was born and died in Lincolnshire, making the birth of her offspring near Leeds most unlikely.
Baptisms start being recorded in Barwick in Elmet after 1600, with the Church register starting in 1653, so there appears no way of corroborating other's family trees.

You've summed up the matter in those 2 sentences.

What were occupations of the 2 men named William Mawson? Was it likely that the elder would have moved?

What about local resources in Lincolnshire and Leeds:
family history societies to see if any member is researching Mawson;
local history societies to learn about each place in 16thC and factors which may have influenced a move;
local record offices for manorial papers, church court proceedings, wills etc.

I saw an online tree for one of my lines which went back to 17th century. It seemed that the tree owner had selected fathers pre-early 1700s from the parish baptism register, on the basis of their forenames and them being born 20-30 years before their possible son. The tree compiler hadn't taken into account that the family was Catholic and so not all their life events were in C. of E. parish register. I noticed 2 glaring mistakes in 19thC and the wrong person in mid-18thC.

[BumbleB]

Apologies for this, BUT you do have to take on-line trees with a "pinch of salt", or very often a "cellar of  " 

According to the holdings at WYAS, the only church with records from 1500's is St Peter and they commence in 1572. 

[Maiden Stone]

I agree with Bumblebee. I would incline to a "cellar" of salt for online trees pre 1700, or at least a teaspoon's worth.
I'd be interested to know where a dob of 1510 came from, unless it was estimated from his death.

There are 16th & 17thC rent rolls for the family line I mentioned in my previous post but even so I've traced my descent only back to c1694. ( 6xGGF, born in parish according to another record, was not in baptism register anytime around then, not surprising as he was Catholic. ) The parish register began 1679.  Members of the family turn up in manorial records, Quarter-Sessions, Papists' Returns, and wills. I've eliminated some people through reading wills, sometimes making a family tree for each executor. They were all yeomen, farmers, innkeepers, craftsmen, tradespeople. I've researched other families with whom they were closely connected and read about the locality and history, in order to put my family in context.